"Burning the Roots" is a 973-word first-person article about the impact of California wildfires on the access to education for children of migrant farmworker families in the Central Valley of California. The article was published in the spring 2019 issue of LMU Magazine.
From the Judges
Masterfully woven with first-person anecdotes, this story is a vivid portrait of the difficult lives of migrant agricultural workers who are affected not just by the intense rigors of manual labor but also by the often-frightening vagaries of nature. Though the entire story is beautifully written, the final paragraph will haunt you long after you’ve finished reading it.
